The report indicates that police account for 50 percent of the corruption cases in the region followed by Judiciary at 30 percent/FILE
The report indicates that police account for 50 percent of the corruption cases in the region followed by Judiciary at 30 percent.
In Kenya, the report indicates, only a few citizens report corruption cases when confronted in such situation at five percent.
The figure in the other EAC member states was eight percent in Uganda, 10 percent in Burundi, 11 percent in Tanzania and 15 percent in Rwanda.
Speaking during the launch of the report, the East Africa Legislative Assembly Speaker Margaret Zziwa said corruption may derail development in the region.
She urged the regional governments to initiate plans that will provide solutions to the challenges facing the region.
“We need to rise up to the occasion, and make sure as we are the people’s representatives, these challenges are brought to the fore and solutions are provided. Not just by the civil societies but by also the government who always bring agendas for the people to vote them,” she urged.
The report also shows the region is on an up-and-up trend, having recorded an impressive average of six percent economic growth with a Gross Domestic Product of 83 billion dollars in 2011/ 2012.
The State of East Africa Report 2013 indicates that the region expanded its total trade by 8.2 billion dollars to 45.8 billion dollars in the last financial year.
It however shows that imports continue to dominate the region’s trade.
“Imports growths of 6.5 billion dollars in 2011 were responsible of 70 percent of the region’s total trade expansion and for 72 percent of total trade in that year,” it reads.
The report also shows the East Africa region attracted direct investment inflows of 3.9 billion dollars in 2012 an increase from 2.6 billion dollars the previous year.
Zziwa said the levels of inequality between the poor and the rich are still high.
“The people’s participation in the economy is rewarded with wages that are suppressed just enough to protect profit margins, but not enough to kill their purchasing power,” it states.
It further notes that “the poor consume a little more, but never catch up with the richest of their compatriots. Indeed the wealth gap widens imperceptibly and inexorably.”
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